Cops Detain Teen at Gunpoint After AI Doritos Mix-Up

 

Cops Detain Teen at Gunpoint After AI Doritos Mix-Up

(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Artificial intelligence system at Baltimore 16-year-old's school thought bag of chips was a gun

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgjdlx92lylo 

1.  What kinds of data or eyewitness information does the article provide to support the claim that the AI flagged the packet as a gun, and how credible do you find that evidence?

2.  How might the interpretation of this incident differ if it were reported from the perspective of the teenager, the school safety team, or the AI developers, and how does the article’s phrasing shape the reader’s understanding?

3.  How does this incident connect with broader issues of surveillance, AI in schools, and policing of minors, and what links does the article draw (or fail to draw) to those themes?

What prior knowledge or real-world examples (e.g., other false positives by AI, controversies in school safety systems) could you bring in to deepen the analysis of this case, and how might the article's connections help or hinder that?

4.  What alternative explanations might there be for how the mis-identification occurred that the article does or does not explore?  Suppose the AI system had worked correctly--how might the student’s experience, school response, or public reaction have been different, and what does that tell us about the role of technology versus human oversight in such situations?

5.  Why is this event significant for AI ethics, school policy, civil rights, etc.) and what implications does the article suggest for future use of AI in public-safety contexts? Which stakeholders are most impacted by the outcome of this incident and how does the article convey the magnitude of those impacts?

Extension Activities:  

1)  Debate Activity: Students research and debate the motion, “AI surveillance in schools does more harm than good,” using this case as a starting point to explore ethical, social, and technological implications.

2)  Design Thinking Task: Students develop a proposal for an ethical school safety system that balances privacy, accuracy, and security—illustrating how human oversight could complement or replace AI decision-making.